China is a reality for Nepal, a fact that India must accept

Lekhanath Pandey says Nepal’s closeness to China, expected to deepen under its new leftist government, is just a sovereign nation’s wish to secure its interests and India should accept it as such

Reading Time:2 minutes

Khadga Prasad (K.P.) Sharma Oli (left), chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist), greets Pushpa Kumar Dahal “Prachanda”, chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre), during a news conference in Kathmandu on December 17. Photo: Reuters

Published: 12:38pm, 4 Jan 2018Updated: 6:46pm, 4 Jan 2018

A Left parties’ alliance is set to form a new government in Nepal after a landslide victory, seen as a triumph of China over India regarding influence in Kathmandu, with pro-Chinese nationalist leader K.P. Sharma Oli expected to be prime minister.

The alliance has an ideological affinity with communist China. Its top leaders, Oli and Pushpa Kamal Dahal, both ex-prime ministers, also have a personal rapport with top Chinese and party officials.

Breaking with the tradition of visiting India first upon taking office, Dahal chose China as his first port of call in August 2008.

And Oli signed a slew of deals, including on transport and transit, when he arrived in Beijing as Nepal’s leader in March 2016. These treaties not only ended Nepal’s sole dependency on India for trade but also diversified the Nepalese market for petroleum imports, crucial for a landlocked nation that has faced three economic blockades by India.

The centrist Nepali Congress-led incumbent government, in contrast, played a role in slowing Beijing’s economic advances in Nepal. Not one project has yet been pursued under the “Belt and Road Initiative”, eight months since a framework agreement.